Local Prosperity Report

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Campaign Finance Reform

Think City wants big money influence out of city hall. It's a problem that has been in the making for more than a decade. And it has only gotten worse.

Money spent by civic politicians and their financial backers on
Vancouver elections quadrupled between 1996 and 2008, hitting as high
as $6.0 million dollars in the last municipal contest.

Ottawa, Toronto,
Montreal, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Calgary and Mississauga all have election
spending and contribution limits, so why not Canada's eighth largest
city?

It isn't because the civic parties don't want change. Since 2002,
every city council – Coalition of Progressive Electors, Non-Partisan
Association and now Vision Vancouver – committed to reforming
campaign financing at the municipal level.

In June 2004, former BC supreme court Justice Thomas Berger and his Vancouver Electoral Reform Commission called for restrictions on campaign contributions and spending during municipal elections, along with 21 other electoral reform measures.

The following March, the COPE-run city council under Mayor Larry Campbell passed a motion asking Victoria to implement many of these recommendations,
as the city alone could not amend the Vancouver Charter to bring in the
Berger reforms. No action was taken by the provincial government.

Two-plus years later in November 2007, Mayor Sam Sullivan's NPA majority reaffirmed its support for the same electoral financing reform measures
put forward by the Campbell council. The province made no changes and
the 2008 civic election is contested under the same-old discredited
campaign financing rules.

Now Vancouver has its third mayor and governing party since 2002 and the city council position is the same. Mayor
Gregor Robertson's Vision party promised in their 2008 election
platform to advocate for changes to provincial legislation to establish
campaign spending and donation limits.

With tri-partisan support at
Vancouver city hall for reforming civic election financing, the ball is
now squarely in the province's court. That is why Think City is urging the provincial parties to commit to reforming municipal campaign finances by legislating:

restrictions on campaign contributions;

restrictions on campaign spending;

tax credits for municipal campaign or political contributions;

reporting of all contributions, regardless of when the contributions are received; and

financial reporting requirements similar to those for federal and provincial parties.